Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 69

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 69

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(II) Richard Cutter, son of Elizabeth, died in Cambridge, at the age of about seventy-two, June 16, 1693. His brother William had died in England before this time. Richard was under age and probably unmarried when he came to America. He was one of the first to build a house outside of the settlement, in that part of Cambridge called Menotomy, and his house for defense against the Indians was furnished with flankers. In December, 1675, he sent four young men of his family-his two sons Ephraim and Gershom, and his stepsons

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Isaac and Jacob Amsden-to the severe cam- paign in Rhode Island which culminated in the Narragansett fight, in which a great part of the New England military were engaged. Richard Cutter was twice married: First, about 1644, to Elizabeth Williams, who died March 5, 1661-2, aged about forty-two years (gravestone) ; she was the daughter of Robert Williams of Roxbury and his wife, Elizabeth (Stalham) Williams. Second, February 14, 1662-3, to Frances ( Perriman) Amsden, par- entage unknown ; she was the widow of Isaac Amsden, and survived Richard Cutter's de- cease, and died before July 10, 1728. Four- teen children, seven by each wife.

Elizabeth, eldest daughter and child of Richard Cutter, married William Robinson, and several of her descendants became famous as governors. She probably died a long time before her father, and was omitted in his will. Two of her sons laid claim to their share of their grandfather Cutter's estate at a later perio 1. William Robinson, Jonathan Robinson and Elizabeth Gregory, and also Samuel Rob- inson, children of Elizabeth Robinson, daugh- ter of Richard Cutter, quitclaimed their rights to their grandfather Richard Cutter's estate ( Middlesex Registry Deeds, 39: 113, etc.) William Robinson died in 1693.

(III) William Cutter, third son and fourth child of Richard Cutter, the immigrant, was a thriving farmer, and died in Cambridge, April I. 1723, in the seventy-fourth year of his age (gravestone). By his wife Rebecca he was father of ten children. She was Rebecca, daughter of John (2) Rolfe (Henry I) and his wife Mary Scullard (Samuel I). Rebecca Rolfe married for her second husband John Whitmore, Senior, of Medford, and died No- vember 13, 1751, aged ninety.

(IV) John Cutter. second son and fifth child of William, born October 15, 1690, died Jan- uary 21, 1776, in his eighty-sixth year, and thirty-seventh in his office as a deacon. He was a farmer. He married Lydia Harrington (John (3), Robert (2), and possibly Ann (I); she was formerly of Newcastle-upon- Tyne. England, and she died January 7, 1755, in her sixty-fourth year. Eleven children.

(V) Ammi Cutter, tenth child of John, born October 27, 1733, died April 19, 1795, in his sixty-second year. He was a farmer and a miller, and had three wives and twenty-one children. By his first wife, Esther Pierce, he had ten children, the ninth of whom was Eph- raim Cutter, born October 31, 1767, died March 31, 1841, who by his wife, Deborah

Locke, had fourteen children, the tenth of whom was Benjamin Cutter, a physician, born June 4, 1803, died March 9, 1864, who by his wife Mary Whittemore had six children.

(VI) William Richard Cutter, youngest child of Ammi Cutter, was born in Woburn, August 17, 1847. He was educated in the public schools of his native town until his fifteenth year, when he was sent to the Warren Acad- emy in Woburn, where he remained until April, 1865, when he entered Norwich Univer- sity at Norwich, Vermont-the institution now situated at Northfield, Vermont, and known as the Military College of the State of Vermont. When at Woburn at the Warren Academy he commanded ( 1863-1865) a corps of cadets known as the Warren Cadets. He performed his share of duty at Norwich Military Univer- sity during the two years of 1865 and 1866, and leaving there in the latter year returned to Woburn, where he pursued his studies under a private instructor. In the fall of 1867 he entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University at New Haven, Connecticut, as a special student, and left there in 1869. In the meantime having access to the large college library at Yale, he became interested in the study of history and more especially geneal- ogy, as he had the use of a larger and more valuable collection of books here than he had ever had before, and he decided to publish a history of the Cutter Family, and issued, while at New Haven, his proposals for that work. He traveled extensively in his pursuit of material, and published his book at Boston in 1871, under the title of "A History of the Cut- ter Family of New England."

He was married, on August 31, 1871, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Kimball, teacher, editor and lecturer, and his first wife, Mary Ann ( Ames) Kimball, and a grand- daughter of Rev. David Tenney Kimball, for upwards of sixty years minister of a church in Ipswich, Massachusetts. One child, Sarah Hamlen, was born to them, July 25, 1873, but died April 26, 1890. Another died in infancy in 1880.

jn 1871 Mr. Cutter removed his residence to Lexington, Massachusetts, and devoted himself for ten years to various pursuits. While at Lexington he prepared and published a "History of the Town of Arlington, Mass- achusetts," which was issued from the press in 1880. This work contained a very full genealogy of the early inhabitants, and copies are now scarce. At Lexington also he edited, with notes. his article for the "New England

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Historical and Genealogical Register," entitled a "Journal of a Forton Prisoner, England, 1777-1779," whose length caused its publication to extend through the numbers of that period- ical from April, 1876, to January, 1879. While at Lexington also he prepared a sketch of Arlington, which was printed under his name in Drake's "History of Middlesex County" (1880).

During his residence in Lexington he held the office by successive elections of clerk of the Hancock Congregational Church, and for seven years from 1875 that of member and clerk of the town school committee, and in connection with the last named office that of trustee of the Cary Free Public Library, being for a greater part of that time clerk and treas- urer of that board. In 1882 he was elected librarian of the Woburn Public Library in his native city, and assuming his duties on March I. of that year, removed at once to Woburn. He holds this office at the present time. He has served on the nominating committee of the Massachusetts Library Club, of which he was one of the original members, and has been one of its vice-presidents. In Woburn he has held the office of secretary of the trustees of Warren Academy since 1885, and that of trus- tee. clerk and treasurer of the Burbeen Free Lecture Fund since 1892. He is also one of the vice-presidents of the Rumford Historical Association of Woburn, and is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Colonial Wars. He has been a vice-president of the Boston Alumni Association of Norwich University, and for more than a generation, or since 1870, a resident member of the New England His- toric Genealogical Society. He has written considerable for the publications of the Gene- alogical Society, and has held a position on its governing council, and in 1906 was elected its historian. He has edited for the Massachu- setts Historical Society a section of Hon. Mel- len Chamberlain's "History of Chelsea," mak- ing a greater part of the second volume of that monumental work. He has prepared for pub- lication and now nearly finished, three volumes of the Towne Memorial Biographies, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. In 1906 Mr. Cutter was selected by the Lewis Historical Publishing Company as editor of various of their publications, among them the present work.

Since 1882, in his leisure from the urgent work of his library position, Mr. Cutter has written much for the newspaper and periodi- cal press, and has written or edited a number

of works of greater or less extent. Among them sketches of the city of Woburn, and of the towns of Burlington and Winchester, for Hurd's "History of Middlesex County," 1890; "Contributions to a Bibliography of the Local History of Woburn," 1892, with additional material, 1893; "Diary of Lieut. Samuel Thompson of Woburn, while in service in the French Wars, 1758" (with copious notes) 1896; "Life and Humble Confession of Rich- ardson, the Informer" (fifty copies printed) 1894; "A Model Village Library" (an article descriptive of the Woburn Public Library) in "New England Magazine," February, 1890; "Woburn Historic Sites and Old Houses,' 1892; etc.

He received the degree of A. M. from Nor- wich University in 1893.

FIELD All who bear the name of Field, both in England and America, are. according to Burke's "Landed Gentry," descended from the Counts de la Field, who were prominently identified with the history of Alsace-Lorraine prior to the Norman conquest. Hubertus de la Feld, who was probably the founder of the family in England, crossed the channel with the Norman duke in 1066, and three years later received from the Conqueror a large landed estate in Lancaster as a reward for his military services. During the succeeding four hundred years there were various changes in the orthography of the name. The present surname, Field, simplified by the omission of the French pre- fix de la, was adopted about the middle of the fifteenth century. Many of this name were noted for their intellectual attainments, and other superior qualifications prior to the coloni- zation of New England, and the Fields of America have every reason to be proud of their English ancestors. A pedigree at hand of Zachariah Field, the immigrant, contains his line of descent through ten generations, beginning with Roger Del Field, born at Sow- erby about the year 1240, and continuing through Thomas Del Feld, John Del Feld, Thomas Del Feld, Thomas Del Felde, William Feld, William Feld, Richard Felde, John Field and the latter's son John. The elder John Field was one of the early English astronomers, and a noted writer upon that subject. By a patent dated September 14, 1538, the heralds formally recognized his right to the family arms: Sable, a chevron between three garbs argent, and at the same time they granted to him the following crest: A dexter arm issu-

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ing out of clouds fesseways proper, habited gules, holding in hand, also proper, a sphere or. This appropriate crest may be considered a recognition of his services in the cause of astronomy. The family about to be mentioned is descended from Zachariah, the immigrant, who was a son of John and a grandson of the astronomer.

(I) Zachariah Field was born at East Ards- ley, Yorkshire, in 1596, and arrived at Boston from Bristol in 1629, first locating in Dorches- ter, Massachusetts. In 1636 he accompanied a large party of English immigrants to the Connecticut valley, settling at Hartford, and being in the vigor of manhood was enrolled in a company furnished by that town to partici- pate in the Pequot war. In 1659 he estab- lished himself in mercantile business at North- ampton, Massachusetts, engaging quite exten- sively in trade with the Indians, and in 1663 removed to Hatfield, where he died June 30, 1666. The Christian name of his wife, whom he married about 1641, was Mary, and her death occurred about 1670. Their children were: I. Mary, born about 1643; married Joshua Carter, Jr., of Northampton. 2. Zach- ariah, born 1645; married Sarah Wels. 3- John, mentioned below. 4. Samuel, born 1651; married Sarah Gilbert. 5. Joseph, born about 1658; married (first) Joanna Wyatt ; (second) Mary Belding.

(II) John, son of Zachariah and Mary Field, was born in Hartford about 1648. He resided in Hatfield, and served under Captain Turner in the memorable engagement with the Indians at Turner's Falls, in 1676. His death occurred in Hatfield, June 26, 1717. He mar- ried, December 17, 1670, Mary Edwards, born January 20, 1650, daughter of Alexander and Sarah (Searl) Edwards, of Northampton. Children: I. John, see next paragraph. 2. Mary, born . 1674, died young. 3. Zachariah, born 1676; married Sarah Clark. 4. Benja- min, born February 14, 1679; participated in the "Meadows Fight" in 1704. 5. Mary. 6. Bethiah. 7. Sarah. 8. Abilene, died young. 9. Ebenezer. 10. Abilene.

(III) John (2), son of John (I) Field, was born in Northampton, May II, 1672. He resided in Hatfield, and was one of the two constables appointed by the governor and council in 1708. He also served as a soldier in the Indian wars. He died in Hatfield, May 28, 1747. In 1698 he married Sarah Coleman, born February 15, 1673, daughter of John and Hannah (Porter) Coleman. In Ash- pelon's raid, which occured in September,

1677, Mrs. Hannah Coleman was killed, and Mrs. Sarah Field was carried to Canada as a captive. She was redeemed in the following year, and one of the shoes worn by her on the homeward march through the wilderness to Hatfield is now one of the cherished relics to be seen in the Deerfield Memorial Hall. Mrs. Field survived her husband, and her death occurred January 8, 1759. She was the mother of six children : John, Sarah, Hannah, Amos, Eliakim, Mary.

(IV) Eliakim, son of John (2) and Sarah (Coleman) Field, was born in Hatfield, No- vember 27, 17II. He resided in his native town, and died there February 8, 1786. In 1752 he married Esther Graves, of Whately, Massachusetts, born November 29, 1732, daughter of David and Abigail (Bardwell) Graves. David (4) Graves was a descendant of Thomas D., the immigrant, through John (2) and Samuel (3). Abigail Bardwell was a daughter of Robert and Mary (Gull) Bard- well, the former of whom served in King Philip's war and took part in the "Falls Fight" under Captain Turner. Children of Eliakim and Esther (Graves) Field: I. Zenas, born August 10, 1753; married (first) Sarah Bur- roughs : ( second) Lydia Cathcart. 2. Sarah, born April 23, 1755: married David Scott, of Whately. 3. Zilpah, born November 13, 1756; married Abner Loomis, of Colchester, Con- necticut ; resided in Whately, Massachusetts ; died March 22, 1847. 4. Rhoda, born October 26, 1758; married Elisha Waite, of Hatfield ; died January 19, 1819. 5. John, see next para- graph. 6. Abigail, born July 21, 1762 ; married Roger Dickinson, of Whately ; died February 9, 1809. 7. David, born April II, 1764; mar- ried Tabitha Clark. 8. Esther, born April 4, 1767 : died unmarried. 9. Hannah, born June 21, 1769; married (first) Samuel Grimes ; (second ) Oliver Cooley ; died May 14, 1843.

(V) John (3), son of Eliakim Field, was born in Hatfield, August 25, 1760. In early manhood he settled in Conway, Massachusetts, where he engaged in farming, and resided there the remainder of his life. In 1789 he married Lucy Look, of Conway, born at Edgartown, Massachusetts, 1763, and died in Conway, July 29, 1854. The children of this union were: I. Polly, born April 27, 1790; died October 25, 1816. 2. Nancy, born October 30, 1791 ; mar- ried Elijah Page ; died December 2, 1856. 3. William, born December 8, 1793. 4. John, who will be again referred to. 5. Lucinda, born June 8, 1798; married Franklin Childs, of Conway. 6. Prudence, born October 20,

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1800; died November 30, 1829. 7. Editha, born May 6, 1803 : died August 1, 1804.

(VI) John (4), son of John (3) and Lucy (Look) Field, was born in Conway, June 28, 1796. He was a lifelong resident of Conway, and an unusually prosperous farmer, acquir- ing possession of the homestead farm and de- voting his active years to its cultivation. He was noted for his upright character and superior judgment in business affairs, which, together with his able administration of vari- ous important public offices, gained for him the esteem and confidence of his fellow-towns- men. His personal appearance was particularly attractive, and in his latter years he was an excellent representative of a New England country gentleman of the old school. In poli- tics he was originally a Whig and later a Re- publican. He attended the Congregational church. Mr. Field died June 13, 1876. He married, September 25. 1828, Fidelia Nash, born in Conway, February 6, 1806, died Sep- tember 22, 1865, daughter of Elijah and Pamelia (Warner) Nash. Pamelia Warner was a daughter of Jonathan Warner. John and Fidelia (Nash) Field were the parents of nine children : I. Chandler Augustus, born September 19, 1829; married Helen Wells. 2. Joseph Nash, born September 20, 1831 ; mar- ried (first) Jane Hayes: (second) Catherine Blackwell; resided in Manchester, England. 3. Marshall, who is mentioned at greater length in the succeeding paragraph. 4. Helen Eliza, born February 3, 1837 ; married Hon. Lyman D. James ( see sketch). 5. Henry. born May 25. 1841 ; married Florence Lathrop. 6. Elizabeth Page, born September 25, 1843; died December 27, 1854. 7. William E., born February 17, 1845; died May 22 same year. 8. Laura Nash, born October 30, 1848; mar- ried, November 26, 1873, Henry Dibblee, for- merly of New York City, and now a prominent real estate dealer in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Dibblee have two children: Bertha, born March 20, 1875, and Frances F., born August 26, 1877. 9. Elizabeth, born April 10, 1853; died April 6, 1854.

(VII) Marshall Field, son of John and Fidelia ( Nash) Field, was born in Conway, August 18, 1835. He attended the public schools and academy of his native town, and these advantages, enhanced by a through train- ing in habits of industry received at home, proved an excellent equipment for a business life. Although of a contemplative nature he disliked study, was not desirous of entering any of the learned professions, and possessed

but one ambition, that of becoming a merchant. From the very first he was wholly subservient to this idea and he believed himself destined to attain its realization. As clerk of a country store in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he remained four years, he acquired the necessary elementary training, and upon reaching his majority he determined to take advantage of his freedom by seeking business advancement in the West, which was then being largely populated by sturdy, energetic New Eng- landers. In 1856 he became salesman in the wholesale dry goods house of Cooley, Wads- worth & Company, Chicago, and continued as such with the succeeding firm of Cooley, Far- well & Company, greatly adding to his business experience and developing such marked ability as to secure a junior partnership in that con- cern in 1860. This house, which was one of the largest mercantile establishments in Chi- cago to successfully weather the financial panic of 1857. was also able to greatly expand its volume of trade during the civil war period, but in 1865 a complete reorganization was deemed absolutely necessary, and Mr. Field became senior partner in the succeeding firm of Field, Palmer & Leiter. From this time forward his business career was practically a succession of brilliant mercantile achievements. He had mastered the science of credit as applied to the changing conditions to which the growing west was constantly subjected, and this knowledge was always in evidence. Having adopted a cash system, which however, was conducted according to the most liberal interpretation of the term, he was inflexible in demanding punctual payments. He also pur- chased upon a strictly cash basis, never deviat- ing from that rule, and this system proved one of the chief elements of his success, for it was truthfully said that a concern without debts was always solvent. By the subsequent withdrawal of Potter Palmer the firm became known as Field. Leiter & Company, and this concern, guided by the energetic hand of its senior partner, successfully survived the heavy losses caused by the disastrous conflagration of 1871. It also survived the financial panic of 1873, and in 1881 Mr. Field became its sole proprietor. A few years later it was deemed advisable to separate the retail and wholesale departments, and the latter was consequently removed to a spacious and handsome building fronting on Adams street, and constructed of rough hewn granite and brownstone, from plans drawn by the famous American archi- tect, HI. Il. Richardson. This building con-

Joursvery truly Marshall Field

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tains thirty and one-half. acres of floor space, and its thirty-four departments necessitate the employment of three thousand people. The retail branch, which is the largest as well as the best equipped of its kind in the world, necessi- tates a still larger force of employees, and it was estimated some time since that the Field payrolls contained the names of over twelve thousand people. Some years ago the firm engaged extensively in manufacturing and established plants in America, Europe and the Orient. In 1891 the firm was transacting a business aggregating thirty-five million dollars per annum, and ten years later this amount was nearly doubled. Although for many years a multimillionaire, Mr. Field never seemed to think of leisure. The enormous business which had been created through his untir- ing industry was always uppermost in his thoughts. and although he witnessed the retirement of many of his contemporaries, the fortunes of some of whom he was mainly instrumental in building up, he preferred to personally direct the affairs of his vast enter- prise almost to the last moment of his life, and he left them in such a perfect condition as to secure their continuance without the slightest interruption. Mr. Field died of pneu- monia in New York City, January 16, 1906, and the inexpressible sorrow which the sad event brought to his family and large circle of personal friends, was shared by the leading business men of America and Europe. A merchant prince in the truest sense of the term, and possessed of a fortune sufficiently colossal to maintain the dignity of his rank, his remarkable ability for the accumulation of wealth was fully equalled by his magnificent generosity, and his gifts for benevolent pur- poses, which were indeed princely, embraced a wide range of objects. In addition to found- ing and endowing with the sum of one million dollars, the Field Columbian Museum, Chi- cago, he left eight millions to this museum by his will. He was one of the original bene- factors of the Chicago University, presenting that institution with land valued at four hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, and to his native town of Conway, Massachusetts, he presented a handsome Memorial Library, dedi- cated to the memory of his parents. He was extremely charitable, subscribing liberally to any cause which he considered worthy, and his contributions to religious objects in general, and to the Presbyterian church in particular, were large. He was a member of various clubs and not infrequently visited them, but he de-

voted a very small portion of his time to society. Aside from rendering valuable aid in raising the municipal affairs of Chicago to a higher moral standard, he evinced but little interest in politics, and although several times offered the nomination for vice-president of the United States he declined the honor.

On January 3, 1863, Mr. Field married for his first wife, Miss Nannie Douglass Scott, of Ironton, Ohio. She died in France, whither she had gone for the purpose of recovering her health. Of this union there were three children : 1. Lewis, born January 9, 1866, died August 17, same year. 2. Marshall, born April 21, 1868; married Albertine Huck; was acci- dentally killed, 1905. 3. Ethel Newcombe, born August 28, 1873, married, January I, 1891, Arthur Magie Tree, who was born in Chicago, July 1, 1863 ; resides in Leamington, Warwickshire, England. On September 5, 1906, Mr. Field married for his second wife, Mrs. Delia Spencer Caton, who had been a neighbor of his in Chicago for thirty years.

JAMES Philip James, immigrant ancestor, came to New England in 1638 with his wife and four children, and two servants, William Pitts and Edward Mitchell, from Hingham, England. They set- tled in Hingham, Massachusetts, and Philip "dyed soon after he came." He married Jane who married (second) February 14, 1640, George Russell. Francis James, prob- ably brother of Philip, with his wife and two servants, came from Hingham at the same time. He died December 27, 1647, probably without issue.

(II) Francis, said to have been a son of Philip James, named after his uncle, was born probably in England, and died in Hingham, Massachusetts, November 29, 1684, intestate. His widow Elizabeth was appointed adminis- tratrix of the estate. He was called husband- man, and resided at Hingham Centre. Chil- dren: I. Elizabeth, died April 1I, 1660. 2. Sarah, born February 27, 1661-2; married, 1707, John Seal, of Boston; died August 2, 1727. 3. Jane, born November 6, 1664; mar- ried December 7, 1704, Edward Darby, of Taunton. 4. Francis, born January 25. 1666-7; died unmarried, December 28, 1717. 5. Thomas, born December 7, 1669; mentioned below. 6. Philip, died February 15, 1687-8. 7. Samuel, born April 6, 1676; married, 171I, Hope Chamberlain ; died August 20, 1749.

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 69

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924